Did you ever get that feeling, during London 2012, that there was something missing from your Olympics? Or that there was a sport dragging the whole thing down? Here, the TIME writers who covered the London 2012 Olympic Games offer up an Olympic sport they’d like to see phased out—and one they’d like to watch at future Games

Drop: Race Walking; Add: Horse Vaulting

LEFT: Liu Hong of China races to the finish line during the Women's 20km Walk of the London 2012 Olympic Games, Aug. 11, 2012.
RIGHT: Equestrian vaulting champion, British Joanne Eccles, competes during the Open European Vaulting Championships at the European Horses Pole in Le Mans, Aug. 21, 2011.

Drop it: Race Walking

Olympic race walking takes place on either a 20 km or 50 km road course. It requires competitors to stay in contact with the ground at all times, which separates it from running events, where both feet momentarily come off the ground. A second rule requires athletes to keep their leading leg straight from the moment it touches the ground until it is lifted. The resulting motion resembles a duck waddle. Racers may look funny, but the London 2012 official website says the sport requires serious stamina and endurance, and that “athletes must be incredibly disciplined to fight the urge to break into a run for extra speed.” Maybe so, but the sport seems to violate the Olympic motto of “higher, faster, stronger” because walking takes longer than running. It isn’t exactly thrilling to watch either. The world record in the men’s marathon, which unfolds over 42 km, is around two hours and three minutes; the world record in the 50 km race walk is around three hours and 34 seconds. Judges situated along the walking course give these drawn-out, monotonous races a degree of color. If a race walker appears to have strayed from the strict motion described above, officials warn them by flashing an 11-inch yellow paddle.

Artistic gymnasts flip, twist and perform dance-like movements on various apparatuses from floor to balance beam. Horse vaulters do similar tricks—including pirouettes, split leaps, handstands and arabesques—while on top of a moving steed. Riders perform their jaw-dropping routines to music and compete as individuals or as a pair. In the latter instance, partners lift and toss one another in the air and perform handstands on top of each other’s shoulders. The sport, which can be traced back at least 2,000 years to the Roman Games, includes the musicality of synchronized swimming, the daredevil quality of gymnastics, and the beauty of equestrian events. There’s plenty of appetite for the sport to be included at the Olympics. The 2010 Equestrian Games welcomed hundreds of horse vaulters from 50 countries, and an online petition to include the sport has clocked up more than 2,600 signatures. And there’s precedent: horse vaulting was contested at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

Table tennis players today need very strong leg muscles for explosive shots and amazing multidirectional mobility, probably the fastest reaction time of any sport and amazing skill in reading and neutralizing ball spin that makes other racket sports look like child's play! The writer suffers from ignorance of these elements that make it difficult for a lot of non-playing spectators (in the USA especially) to appreciate the sport. Add to all that the fact that it is the most popular indoor sport in the world (in terms of players and national association) and you have a good reason why Olympic tickets to table tennis events were some of the hottest sellers in London.

Olympics smell test. Something must be wrong with this guy's sense of smell.a) if quick reflexes are not important, let's get rid of soccer, tennis, trap shooting, fencing, volleyball, basketball, badminton, boxing, field hockey, handball, etc. so much for that careless commentb) they "don't have to run, jump or be... strong"? have you really looked at elite table tennis players? Zhang Jike has hamstring and calf muscles like a decathlon athlete. Is any one of the guys you see in TT videos even slightly overweight? (well, Alexandar Karakasevic is the one exception that proves the rule). No running? top player runs more during his match than a soccer player during his. c) "They don't have to move around all that much" - it seems that he was not watching table tennis at the Olympics but daydreaming about his local YMCA or some dudes in his bar pushing the tiny ball back and forth.Just take a look here, buddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... this is the guy who is not even in the world top-200)

For your information, they just dropped baseball a while back. They had legitimate reasons for doing so. Why would they want it back so soon after it had proven unpopular at the worls level. Whover suggests dropping men's football (yes I call soccer football) should as well suggest dropping track and field or the olympics in their entirety. The Olympics should have sports that are widely played or competed over the world, not sports with regional popularity and dominated by the large nations. In my opinion, synchro-swimming, all equestrian events, and any event that cannot be competed in every continent should be scrapped and replaced with much more popular and exciting events. All these while creating some level of parity between nations.

Sports is war for spectators. Why get so worked up over a "win" from someone who represents our country? It's another diversion of the masses while we all are losing our rights and the ruling-class control and manipulate us. // Jean Clelland-Morin

Brazil only cares about Olympic soccer because it's the only tournament that they have not won.. It's pride thing. Sepak Takraw it's actually very popular in the beaches of Brazil such as Ipanema and it's really fun to watch (not as fun as women's beach volleyball). Surfing and skateboarding should definitely be added.

Table Tennis/Ping pong involves short jumps and lightning-fast reflexes to master and no it doesn't use brute strength like that which would be used in tug-of-war (Seriously? I hope that's a joke.) but a precise and disciplined control of strength to direct the ball where you need it.

For the writer's tug-of-war needs "

Give us your eight strongest guys, and tug away", there are special places on the internet for that; Not the Olympic stadium.

If these desk jockeys think these female oriented sports are not disciplined and difficult, and worthy of world attention , they are wrong , and prejudiced. I couldn't wait to see them , and I wish they televised more of them. show more show less

If these desk jockeys think these female oriented sports are not disciplined and difficult, and worthy of world attention , they are wrong , and prejudiced. I couldn't wait to see them , and I wish they televised more of them. show more show less

If these desk jockeys think these female oriented sports are not disciplined and difficult, and worthy of world attention , they are wrong , and prejudiced. I couldn't wait to see them , and I wish they televised more of them.

I don't know why opinions of an individual ever qualified for a time article. I believe, time should encourage their writers to not write any article about what they they believe, but based on truth and keeping in mind the readers base.

I hope that these kind of articles won't show up in time again, or that will just make readers go hunt for news and material somewhere else.

Actually it might be a better idea to hae countries recommend sports for the olympics on a rolling basis, i.e., there are core sports and then other that are "temporary" for one or two olympics. I know I would love to see our Gaelic Football and Hurling showcased more internationally and I am sure something like Sepak Takraw would be interesting to watch. What might also result is the fact that more nations would get in the medal tables cf. the usual bias towards developed nations who can afford to "unlevel" the playing fields/tracks by throwing more money at their athletes.

I don't think we should have men's football or tennis, because they already have massive competitions in the form of the world cup and Wimbledon. I'd take out rhythm gymnastics and replace it with co-ed cheerleading. Top level cheerleaders are insane acrobats! It's amazing to watch, and they have to be very strong.

I fully disagree with the shooting assessment. As a junior air rifel shooter who trains hard (yes, you train in rifle, from weight lifting to cross country running), I feel that the assessment of shooting as not athletic is both shallow and inaccurate. I can run farther, lift heavier, and trai harder than many athletes in sports such as lacrosse or even football, all because I compete in a shooting sport. Many do not understand the commitment needed to shoot well. Aerobically, one must have a resting heartrate slower than that of many top tier olympic athletes, simply because when shooting at a target smaller than the head of a pin from over 30 ft away, the vibration of your heart is enough to make you MISS. This is only achieved through long duration high intensity aerobic training. We run as much as our cross-country and track teams. We lift weights, simply because when you support a 17-20 pound hunk of metal, over 3 feet long, for up to 2 hours straight ( 60 chot ISSF Standing Match), you need STRENGTH. Have you ever held something in the exact same position, with no vibration, for over 10 minutes? 30? an hour? It takes both strength and mental discipline. Im sorry if it is boring to watch, I wont argue with that. Its worse than watching paint dry. But dont say it isnt a sport. Our team will gladly race the author any day! And we would win, even if we "aren't athletic in the traditional sense..." Especially if you want to add darts!

Shooting competition should be organized like biathlon in the Winter Olympics, where you run and shoot. If you miss your target, you do penalty laps. It would showcase the athletics of the shooters and make it interesting to watch.

You are an idiot. Table tennis is like running, boxing and playing chess at the same time. You have zero knowledge of the sport. Shouldn't you guys do some research if you are going to write about something? I remember in college we had to research a subject before we wrote about it. Now it seems like any moron can turn on a computer and write a bunch of nonsense. It might be a good idea to gain some knowledge about the subject before you write about it. The only one more idiotic than you is your editor.

I stopped taking this seriously when you advocated dropping table tennis, but then suggested adding bowling. Does bowling "pass the olympic smell test" any better than a lot of the things you mentioned dropping?

This is about taste and there is no accounting for it. I for one think we should be finding way to add more martial sports. I would like to see Karate, Kick boxing, Kung Fu and even Capoeira in the Olympics. If only because the martial sports seem to be the only truly inclusive sports where anyone from any country seem to be able to win a medal. With a former Afghanistan refugee who still trains in dojo that's not wide enough to meet regulations having a chance to medal as much as a athletes from wealthier countries with more money. Very, very few other Olympic sports provide that opportunity. Even track and field runs largely according to script. Sprint medals go to North Americans (US or Caribbean runners), middle and long distance medals usually to East Africans or Europeans with field being mostly North Americans and Europeans. Olympics are supposed to be a global movement, so its only fair that we have more sports were anyone can win.

things they say do not match at all. they say to ditch table tennis because players don't move around therefore it is not a sport, but they say to add bowling!?!? Doesn't make sense at all, loss of time....

So... let me get this straight: You want to drop gymnastics and add a sport no one has heard of. You want to drop ping pong because it's childish and add tug of war because it's... not? You claim shooting is not athletic but you want to add darts and bowling, two "sports" even morbidly obese people could medal in. You want to drop soccer, which the whole world plays and loves fanatically, and pick up baseball... a sport that only 3 countries in the world play with any regularity. Women's synchronized swimming is pointless, but men's synchro is awesome. And tennis, literally one of the most physically demanding individual sports ever played, should be dropped.

What - is the author blind? Did he look at the leg development on the top men's table tennis players? As for the photos, that's just cherry picking photojournalism. Its a bunch of shots of the ball before it has even been struck for the first time. That's like judging baseball by the pitcher's set position.

It is true that basement players don't have to be very athletic. But neither do guys shooting hoops in their driveways or those hitting slow pitch softballs in the public parks. Any sport can be dumbed down. So what?

Even back in the 50s when the sport was still developing the soon to be World Champion Ichiro Ogimura was doing 4 km of frog jumps with a 40 kg (88 lb) dumbbell on his shoulders. Of course modern training is more sophisticated and the athletes are stronger and faster.

Yea, a bit of a disappointing article. i have a suggestion, Ultimate Frisbee! It's a fantastic team sport and good to watch too. the players often make amazing catches and demonstrate great skill. plus, from what i have seen it is very popular. all the universities in my town have at least two teams each.